In
"A Modest Proposal" Swift is addressing the poverty problem in
Ireland. He says there are so many poor people breeding more poor people who
will eventually become beggars and thieves. His solution is that impoverished
mothers should nurse their children until they are one year of age and then
those one year old children should be sold as food.
Swift's
solution to this very serious problem is not serious at all, it is purely
satirical. Swift's purpose for writing the essay was in response to the very
poor treatment of the Irish by the English during this time. He mentions that
the landlords had already devoured the parents of the children and he means by
this that the English treated the Irish so poorly that they might as well be
eating them. For more information on the state of Ireland during this time
please see this link: http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~lyman/english320/sg-Swift-18thC.htm.
In
swifts proposal he outlines why it would be a good thing to eat the children
who reached one year of age saying that they weren’t good for anything else and
that they weren’t old enough to steal yet. I’m not exactly sure why he mentions
Americans in the essay but he claims to have gotten the idea for eating the
babies from an American friend in London. One thought I have is that he
includes the Americans because they didn’t care about the situation in Ireland
or also treated the Irish poorly. I cannot speak that this is fact however.
Amusing rap rendition of A Modest Proposal. WARNING: Some explicit language.
Molly,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the fact that this proposal was composed of sarcasm. Although, at first glance, it does seem like he is serious in the use of figurative language. It scared me a little bit when I first started reading it. Once I got half way through, it became clear that it was sarcasm. Respectively, I don't agree that he was addressing the povery problem. That may be one of his points, but I believe he was mocking the ignorance of the people in Ireland. It was well written and a great post!
-Taylor
I disagree with you very much actually. I believe he is mocking the English for what they think of the Irish rather than the Irish themselves.
ReplyDeleteI think each of you is partially correct. The poverty issue was the core of his essay, however, he takes pains to mock everyone involved equally, before getting to the basic point of the entire thing. Molly, I think he included the american because we were disinterested and far away. He also included several other foreign "experts," because the type of people who are always quoted in political discussions are never from the country being talked about. It's similar to the way Marx and Lenin are quoted here in the U. S.
ReplyDeleteMolly,
ReplyDeleteI agree that Swift wrote 'A Modest Proposal' in a satirical way that sounded serious, yet full of sarcasm. In addition, I agree that poverty was one of the main problems that Swift is addressing throughout his essay. When I began reading I had to reread a few paragraphs a couple of times just to make sure I had read it correctly because I had never read an essay like this before. Definitely an interesting read, yet a great one. Your post was well written, and straight to the point. Thanks for the great post!
I also wondered about the American...your thoughts on it make a lot of sense to me. I took an Irish History class a year or so ago and the English did come in and take over and treated the Irish like animals. I think he is addressing the poverty issue, the English, and the Irish. After living this way and being treated this way for so long the Irish didn't even realize it wasn't normal (a large portion of the population anyway). I believe he wanted to stand up and make his people see that this wasn't right or normal and they needed to change. Thank you for your clear post and I love the video.
ReplyDelete